It all started with a racoon || jegulus

Chapter 3

"And I miss them so much, you know? Them and their little cute precious adorable faces." says James for the seventh time now.

He's sitting at a table just outside the University's library entrance. Near him his best friend of a life Marlene McKinnon is applying bright red polish to his nails, listening absentmindedly to him talking, while his other best friend of a life Peter Pettigrew is staring at his pages about the differences between Vygotskij's and Piaget's theories for an exam they're going to have in less than a week as if his life would depend on them. In front of them sits Remus Lupin, James' University buddy for two years now, who is revising his notes about Aestheticism for an exam he's going to give in just a few hours.

"I know I should be happy for them being at the shelter, but what if they miss me the same as I do? Oh God, what if Bambi misses me? I'm such a bad friend, taking them away like that. What was I thinking? My babies will never see me as they did. I'll forever be pictured as the traitor for the rest of their lives. I miss Bambi so much, my baby will never forgive me." a moment of silence follows before he eventually goes back to talk, panic in his voice.

"Oh God, even worse. What if they're living a way better life than the one they were living with me? They'll forget me in an instant and I'll be remembered as a nobody forever and ever. Wait, now that I think about it I don't actually know what's worse. Marls? What do you suppose is worse? Pete?"

"I" says Remus, exasperated "think you don't even know that the worst that can happen is going to happen in the near fucking future if you don't fucking shut your mouth and fucking study."

James begins to open his mouth again to say something back, when Remus threatens him with a half eaten sandwich and a look that could very much incinerate something non flammable easily. With that, James closes his mouth shut and goes back to reading his notes about language development and cognition in children.

Just for a bit.

"If I knew I would be missing Jeb biting my ankles so much I would have let him do it more."

"For the love of God, James, just go visit them at the shelter or something. Now concentrate on Chomsky's Linguistic Theory and shut it." says Remus, eyes focused on Dorian Grey's biography.

"Hold up, how do you know what I have to study?"

"Because somebody has to and it's pretty much obvious it's not going to be you."

"Still" intervenes Marlene "Lupin isn't wrong."

She gestures to James to give her his other hand and as he does, she continues to apply nail polish on his nails. This time it's dark green.

"Thank you." replies Remus, raising his hands to the sky. "Now go back to study, both of you. Take an example from Peter."

Peter stays still and James is pretty sure that he's been asleep with his eyes open for a while now. Either that or he's so scared of disappointing Remus he's afraid to move even an inch. Or both.

"What I meant is" she stops talking for a second, deep concentration in her eyes to try and not mess up her artwork on James' nails, her tongue pressed between her lips "you definitely should go back to the shelter from time to time to visit."

At that James nods, contemplatively. He has been thinking about it a lot, actually. His thoughts have been pacing from visiting little Meeko and making sure he's still full of life to seeing those gorgeous grey eyes again for more than a week now.

His and Regulus', he had learnt the stranger's name not without insisting, last conversation together was brief, but James had learned more things about him in those few minutes than the other probably wanted. His name came from the star in the Lion's constellation and, honestly, James thought that it was pretty accurate. He was fierce and he was sweet, even if he knew how to hide it well, and James could see it in the way he looked at animals or in the way he talked kindly about Newt Scamander. He was more real than anybody James had ever met, like he knew the universe's most important secret and decided that it was okay, that it was right. He had this aura around him that inspired trust and relief and James felt like he could very happily drown in it.